Jac's roundup of pop culture news and Internet findings

Survivor-type Bear Grylls may drink his own pee
and propose to his wife with an ass diamond,
but naturalist filmmaker Paul Rosolie is upping the ante in the weird
wilderness game by allowing himself to be “eaten alive” — for real, apparently
— by an anaconda on TV.
Judging by the trailer,
viewers will witness Rosolie and his crew travel to the Amazon, hunt down an
anaconda, suit up in a custom death-proof ensemble, douse himself with pig
blood and wait for said anaconda to get hungry. The Eaten Alive special airs on Discovery on Sunday, Dec. 7 as part of
something called “Mega Week.” Apparently both Rosolie and the anaconda survived
the incident, which was filmed in advance. Cue the music!
In other “Oh my god, Becky” news, Kim Kardashian’s greasy butt on the
cover of Paper magazine has everyone all in a tizzy.
I think we should be offended by the headline/goal of the spread to “Break
the Internet,” because haven’t we all seen Kim’s dump truck plenty of times
before? More noteworthy is the fact that she’s popping out of a trash bag,
which is actually quite fitting.
Look at these cute illustrations of movies with one
letter removed from the title. And yes, I would totally see a Ron Swanson
superhero movie called Ron Man.
Some of your favorite lady-shows are coming back in
January!
Girls returns Jan. 11:
Broad
City is back Jan. 14: Broad
CityGet More: Comedy
Central,Funny
Videos,Funny TV
ShowsYour BFF Jennifer Lawrence will never get a Twitter, and it’s all because of all
you pervs who looked at her hacked pics she’s “not very good on phone or
technology.”
TIL Jennifer Lawrence is all of our moms.
Entertainment
Weekly’s annual
reunion issue is on stands now, which means apparently it’s already time to reminisce about Mean Girls and Napoleon Dynamite.
Fox News’ Megyn Kelly accidentally cursed on air
when introducing Mike Huckabee this week. She said Fuckabee.
Watch these 1980s aerobic workout stars get down to
Taylor Swift earworm “Shake It Off”
Kim Kardashian is releasing a selfie coffee table book called Selfish. Wait,
two Kardashian-related items in one post? Everything is horrible, bye!
New movie trailers to hit the Interwebz: Neill Blomkamp (District 9, Elysium) teams up with the incomparable Sharlto Copley again
with Chappie, about a robot raised by a group of humans (Dev Patel, Yolandi and Ninja of
Die Antwoord), proving once again that Copley is the go-to actor to play robot men; World War I drama Testament
of Youth, starring Kit
Harington (aka a beardless Jon Snow) and Hayley Atwell; and a fucking Minions
movie.

Right off the bat, Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) has her very own I Am Legend
moment. She’s in the restricted area outside District 12 with her
trusty bow, surveying the land. The turkeys gobble-gobbling along better
beware because she’s about to head off for her victory tour,
celebrating her “win” at the 74th Hunger Games, and she’s not looking
forward to playing the celebrity role that’s going to be expected of
her.

Jac's roundup of pop culture news and Internet findings

The Screen Actors
Guild Awards were Sunday and I didn’t watch that low-budge mess, but here are
the winners
if you care. America’s girl crush, Jennifer Lawrence, nabbed an SAGy (?) for
her role in Silver Linings Playbook (I
know I’m late on this, but that movie is just great. Go see it.) After a
non-wardrobe malfunction,
JLaw accepted by citing the first job that got her the ubiquitous SAG card: an
MTV My Super Sweet 16 promo.
Via Dlisted:Get More:
Jennifer Lawrence, Movie Trailers, Movies Blog
Local drag queen
Penny Tration (government name: Tony Cody) was selected to be on the fifth
season of RuPaul’s Drag Race via a
Facebook fan vote. The season premiered Monday on Logo and, sadly, our girl was
the first to sashay away. Now, call me biased (because I am), but Penny
deserved at least another week. Having spent time in The SweatShoppe, Penny’s
HQ and studio, I know she’s one of the hardest working queens in the biz. She
makes her own clothing and wigs, does some outstanding makeup work and
looked more like a real curvalicious lady than Serena ChaCha, the other queen up for
elimination this week. When the two were instructed to lip sync for their lives, it was
clear Ms. ChaCha was the winner (damn her splits!). Unfortunately, Penny did
not know the lyrics to “Party in the USA,” so I think we can all just blame
Miley for this tragedy. Penny, we still love ya! Keep doing yo thang.
Adrian Grenier (Vincent
Chase to most but forever the Drive Me
Crazy dude to me) tweeted
big news for Entourage fans this
week: the movie spinoff has been greenlit! Mind you,
Entourage may follow in its sister Sex
and the City’s
footsteps by glossing over anything cool about the series and pooping out a
2-hour douchey bromance, but fans will certainly still flock to theaters to check it
out.
Adapting TV shows
for the big screen
is nothing new — just look at Star Trek.
In Entourage’s case, a successful show on HBO for eight seasons, a movie will
provide one last chance for fans to see Vince and his buddies...and one last
chance to squeeze any last profitability from the series. But what about
adapting shows that weren’t necessarily successful on TV in the long term? Party
Down was an excellent Starz comedy from 2009-2010. Adam Scott, Lizzy
Caplan, Ken Marino and a bunch of other hilarious familiar faces from TV comedy
portrayed a crew of kooky caterers, each episode following them to a different catered event. It got a lot of late-in-show life love from Netflix viewers (because who
watches Starz?!) but was cancelled after two seasons. Ever since, there have
been hopes and rumors of a film version from fans and cast members
alike. While the crossover is still unconfirmed, here’s an awesome faux
trailer, made from clips from the series, with a horror twist:
And because
everyone loves Mrs. Doubtfire, check
out a creepily realistic look at what the family film would look like if it had
taken a dark turn.
If you’re like
most theater kids or women between the ages of 10 and 110, then you can quote Mean Girls and Les Mis like a champ and you will love this.
Tonight is a night
that myself and Lizbeans everywhere have been dreading for some time — the
series finale of 30 Rock. You can
read my full eulogy here, but I have to say while I’m happy the show is going
out while it’s still good (Tina Fey and Alec Bladwin both snagged
aforementioned SAG awards for their performances in the show), I’m really going
to miss my weekly dose of Ms. Bossypants.
From the beginning, 30 Rock has been
a writer’s comedy and I will cherish every quote that has been ingrained in my
brain over the past seven seasons (ex. "Live every week like it's Shark Week." - Tracy Jordan). On this momentous evening, I leave you with these
life lessons from Liz Lemon.
My feelings are
best described by this Claire Danes supercut:

People sure are concerned with Girls for a time when television is full of objectionable content — terrorists, gigolos, Bill O’Reilly, etc. For better or worse, Lena Dunham’s comedy has garnered a ton of attention since its premiere in April 2012.

n Silver Linings Playbook,
we get Pat Solitano (Bradley Cooper), a former teacher, newly released
from a mental institution after a violent psychotic incident, heading
back into the hornet’s nest that he calls home, the South Philly
domicile of his parents, Pat Sr. (Robert De Niro) and Dolores (Jacki
Weaver).

Spooky thrills creep up on a mother (Elizabeth Shue) and
her daughter (Jennifer Lawrence) as they move into an all-too affordable
house next to a horrific crime scene, where a young girl killed her
parents.

Sundance winner a tense, well-crafted naturalistic thriller

Based on Daniel Woodrell's novel, 'Winter's Bone' tells of 17-year-old backwoods Ozarks girl named Ree (Jennifer Lawrence) who needs to get her missing meth-cooking father to a court date or her family will lose their log-cabin-style home because he jumped bail. The film incorporates an insightfully sociological sense of place yet doesn't get bogged down by it. Grade: B-plus.

Debra Granik discusses her Sundance-approved drama, 'Winter's Bone'

Debra Granik's 'Winter's Bone' stands in stark relief to this summer's more bombastic fare. Taking in its elemental pleasures, you feels as though you're entering a parallel cinematic universe in which the simple inflection of a character's voice or the crack of a tree branch have the ability to impart more tension than a dozen CGI-driven multiplex thrillers put together. Granik spoke with CityBeat about the Sundance Film Festival's influence on her career, the casting of Jennifer Lawrence in the lead role and the dramatic power of gnarly trees.